Ajeet Rai set the tone when he held to love to start his second round singles match against Moerani Bouzige at the Gold Coast this afternoon, but he couldn’t convert any of his three break points next up before Bouzige eventually held serve after three deuces. Rai had another break point in the fourth game before stringing three aces together in the middle of the fifth. He had another break point in the eighth game, and two set points in the twelfth at 15-40, but they all went begging. The tie-break was a different story, with Rai winning the first five points. He lost his first set point, but broke the Australian to complete the set at the fourth time of asking. They had been on court for an hour and seven minutes.
Bouzige held serve to start the second set, but Rai struggled in his opening game before eventually getting home after three deuces. He was able to win only eight points in the rest of the set, however, and that wasn’t enough to take even one more game. The set lasted for 45 minutes.
They swapped service breaks to start the final set, with Rai breaking Bouzige again the next time the Australian served. Rai had to get through five deuces before winning the fifth game, and three more in the seventh, where he had to save two break points. Bouzige held comfortably to stay in the match, but Rai only lost two points as he served it out after two hours and 44 minutes. The final score was 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-3.